Whole to parts for ASD?

[Slache]

My DS10 ASD is academically inclined and ahead in every subject. He does so well with parts to whole (Saxon, IEW) that I just thought DD8 ASD should do the same, but I'm wondering if she should do something different for language arts like Emma Serl, Bravewriter or MCT. She is somewhere between on schedule and behind in this area, currently using Dictation Day By Day. Have you used whole to parts successfully with a kid like this?

She is using Saxon ahead of schedule and thriving because she's mathy, I'm just concerned with how to progress in writing without making her hate it.

[Rosie_0801]

With mine, I had to use parts to whole and whole to parts, and somewhere in the middle she learned stuff. 🤷‍♀️

[PeterPan]

Yeah I don't think there's some kind of pat rule. Work with the kid in front of you. 

2 hours ago, Slache said:

how to progress in writing without making her hate it.

So you think one of those would be a good fit for her? What is going to make her hate it? Can't say I liked any of those options, so I don't think it matters a jolly fig.

Remember. Kids enjoy doing what they can do well. It's simple. If it's going well and she feels empowered, like she's making progress, it will probably be fine. 

If worse comes to worse, try doing none of them. She's 8? Have her go look up stuff she's interested in and write it. Seriously. You may not even need a writing program for her age. And if she needs something (intervention level) none of those are it anyway, which means the program was only about making you feel better, haha. 

My dd hit this stage where she was like just let me look up stuff I'm interested in. Maybe embrace whatever your dd is communicating to you about what she would engage with. It's a good age to roll with that. Can she type? Can she get her thoughts out via dictation? I'd be much more concerned about her ability to hold her thoughts and get them out than which program she uses. The which won't matter.

[PeterPan]

https://mindwingconcepts.com/pages/methodology  This will allow you to go whole to parts with anything you want. After all, her deficits are likely to be subtle (steps in narrative language, inclusion of emotion, critical thinking triangle, etc.). So you just need a tool that helps you make your instructional targets explicit while using models and methods of engagement that suit her.

Around that age I had my dd writing from prompts, working her AntiColoring Book, doing narrations (of course), Writing Tales (love), etc. But I think do what suits them. It's fine for you to say this is what needs to happen and make it happen. Do what she needs, not what she doesn't need. If she's already good at some components, don't belabor those.

[kbutton]

We used MCT for grammar in the early years, but my son did NOT do the four level analysis one level at a time. He played them against each other in a problem-solving sort of way. 

He seemed to need whole to parts followed by parts to whole some of the time. 

[Storygirl]

We didn't use the programs that you mentioned (other than Saxon and IEW), so I can't really comment on curriculum choices.

But I will say that "language arts" is a huge category, and it might help you to think about what her strengths and weaknesses are more specifically. Does she struggle with aspects of reading comprehension? Does she have a good grasp of background knowledge (this is a reading thing -- you can google it; it's hard to tell sometimes what kids with ASD  are NOT picking up in a typical way, because we assume they are)? With writing, there can be problems with getting thoughts onto paper, or problems with understanding main ideas and details, or strengths with fiction writing and weaknesses with expository writing (or vice versa).

So I would break it down and identify what her specific strengths and weaknesses are. Then choose programs or activities that will allow her to capitalize on her strengths, and also pick programs that target the skills where she is weak. For the weaker areas, I would consider using therapy-level materials.

This is not always easy, and I struggled when I was homeschooling, to do different things with different kids, because there was only one me, and I had a hard time sometimes dividing my time and giving them the individual help that they needed. But I think for the most success, breaking things down into smaller categories will help the most.